Monday, January 03, 2011

2010? Over and best to be forgotten unless you enjoy recurring nightmares involving evil empires arriving in the middle of the night to deprive you of sleep & dignity a degradation in which to start every morning until the 2011 Twins take the field at which time you can only hope to rid yourself of the memory of Ron Gardenhire's award winning season. I present to you the reigning American League manager of the year and the quotes extracted from him after game 3 of the 2010 ALDS.

"Right now we're in a little rut here"

There are no little ruts Gardy a rut by definition implies established procedure and I'm pretty sure 12 straight playoff losses qualifies as such.

"We clinched early we thought we'd be able to get everybody healthy we had some guys still beat up guys had to sit out 5, 6 days trying to get healthy and I don't think their swings really came back to 'em a couple of guys and uh we battled through that but uh no excuses"

No excuses? you just suggested a couple of players in your lineup let the team down. Mauer and Thome were both rested down the stretch are those the individuals your referring to? If not Mauer or Thome then who? Who else didn't come to play Gardy? but no excuses. Incidentally, the only person we have clear evidence of letting the team down was Gardenhire himself earning an automatic ejection during game 2 for arguing balls & strikes after going out of his way to confront his old nemesis Hunter Wendelstedt (said by Gardy to have a "smart-ass mouth" during their very public 2009 feud) by taking an extended trip to the mound to visit starting pitcher Carl Pavano a trip in Gardenhire's own words "to calm Carl down. Calm everything down" his method for which brought the umpire from behind home plate to a position up close & personal with the agitated pitcher it was then that Gardy calmed everybody down by engaging in a heated exchange with Wendelstedt a nasty back & forth resulting in the Twins manager being thrown out of a playoff game which still hung in the balance.

Responding to a reporter who used the word 'dominated' when describing the Yankees/Twins abusive relationship Gardenhire said "I don't think its called domination I think they find a way to win"..."I think if you look at all the games between us a mistake here a mistake there and the game could be turned the other way"..."but dominate i think is not the right word to use with us, record-wise yeah they've won 9 in a row but that's not dominating us other than wins & losses the games are really close that could go either way"

Your right Gardy other than wins & losses things have gone well enough to get you a postseason participation trophy your reward for exhibiting an uncanny ability to take talented team after talented team all the way to the level of competitive - fine shepherding indeed the October trail you've blazed will remain visible for decades to come a deep dirty rut for future settlers to follow.